Worldwide Best Selling Albums Ever

This thread would like to be a kind of database of all the information available (both from public sources and from the posters in this forum) regarding this fascinating subject of which albums are the most popular in the history of recorded music and how much they have sold in the last 50 years.

I propose two goals:
The first one will be to build the most complete sales database possible.
The second goal is to build a ordered list of the best-selling albums ever in the world.
In this list, more important than to show the exact sales of each album will be to discover (or calculate) the saleswise position of each album in that list (did a particular album sold less than the album above it and more than the album below it?).
Get the ideia? Obviously we will try to estimate a figure for the sales of each album but its position will be the most important.

This thread will deal with sales in the range 15 million or higher.

The help and collaboration of EVERYBODY will be extremely necessary.

This thread couldn't exist without all the facts, figures and opinions provided by all members of this forum with a special salute to:

IMPORTANT: the albums are listed in 7 categories, but any album can be moved to other category (either up or down) everytime new information about its sales appears, the category to which an album appears below must be seen generally as provisory, as we find more and more data about sales the albums can change category any time.I created this categories in order to be more easy to describe all the albums which i believe have reached the minimum sales plateau of 15 MILLION copies sold worldwide necessary to be present in this thread.In each category the albums are listed in ALPHABETIC order, only later a list will appear in the first post in which the albums will be ordered according to their estimated global sales. Also in the first post will appear a list with the albums ordered by the sales posted below.

1. Albums that have sold 30 MILLION copies or more(by alphabetic order)

12 million worldwide (Billboard, February 1998)24 million worldwide with 8 million in US (1998, Billboard: October 17)27 million worldwide (1999, Billboard: November 6)Career sales of 110 million albums worldwide, including almost 9 million in Canada (Billboard, January 2000)Career sales approaching 130 million albums worldwide (Billboard, January 2002)30 million worldwide (2002, Billboard: January 26)150 million albums worldwide (2003, Billboard: March 22)

28-million worldwide (Soundscan sales in US: 1.1-million CDs and 1.5-million cassettes sold since 1991 for a total of 2.6-million) (1995, Billboard: October 7)35 million worldwide (1996, Billboard: June 29)

NOTES: 1 - In the Netherlands the compilation "25 Jaar na Waterloo" replaced "Gold" (both have similar track list) as ABBA best selling compilation in the country, with sales that can be as high as 500,000.2 - In Japan the 2001 collection "S.O.S. - The Best of ABBA" sold 566,000 copies.

About 20 million worldwide (1994, Billboard: November 26)23 million worldwide (1995, Billboard: September 9)13.5 million outside USA (1996, Billboard: September 7)80 million albums+singles sold worldwide (1996, Billboard: September 7)

*****"While "Tunnel Of Love" did a mere 3 million units (6 million worldwide), 1984's "Born In The U.S.A." has hit the 12-million mark (20 million worldwide) and "Live 1975-1985" has reached 3 million domestically, a massive number for a three-CD/cassette box."(1992, Billboard: March 7)

Sales Timeline3.5 million worldwide (Billboard, September 1997)10 million worldwide (Billboard, January 1998)with 2.4-million sold in Latin America, this album is the biggest record ever, by a non-latino artist, in the history (Billboard, March 1999)16 million worldwide (Billboard, September 1999 and link)career sales of 43 million albums worldwide (Billboard, January 2003)career sales of 50 million albums worldwide (Billboard, November 2004)

Sales Timeline13 million worldwide (1976, Time Magazine: February 23)about 20 million worldwide (combined sales on Ode/A&M and Epic/Sony labels) ; average sales of 1 million each year (1995, Billboard: October 21)

Sales Timeline"According to Motown, Richie's solo albums -- 1982's "Lionel Richie", 1983's "Can't Slow Down", and 1986's "Dancing On The Ceiling'', have sold a total of 25 million copies worldwide" (1992, Billboard: August 27)

Last edited by Edu on Sat May 09, 2009 10:59 pm, edited 121 times in total.

UK : 3,850,000 (look at Basil thread)
France : Officialy 2,500,000 sold in 1988 when it hit the diamond award, said to be at 3,000,000 since the releases of the special edition.
Canada : 2,000,000 certified, since 1rst April 1984. Over 3,000,000 copies sold by now.
Mexico & Argentina : Said to be at 1,7m and 0,6m respectively in those countries.
Japan : 2,500,000 copies shipped.
NZ : 180,000 certified.
Belgium : 550,000 certified.

Others 'unofficial' figures : 1,2m in Spain, 1m in Italia, 0,2m in Austria, 0,6m in South Africa, 0,3m in Turkey.

...
Mariah Carey's worldwide success continued to build with Daydream, which sold more than 14 million units worldwide during the year under review, while her 1993 and 1994 Music Box (24 million) and Merry Christmas (10 million) each sold over an additional million units worldwide.
...

Columbia Blitz For Carey's 'Daydream' A Global Reality

The 25-year-old singer's 1993 release, Music Box has sold 23.5 million copies worldwide, according to the label. Carey also issued the seasonal Merry Christmas last year, which moved 8 million units worldwide. Those releases sold 6.3 million and 2 million units, respectively, in the US, according to SoundScan.

Source: Billboard - September 9, 1995

Sony Music Japan also confirmed in 1996, that Music Box had sold 24 million worldwide (2.3 million in Japan).

The press release in 1998 for '#1's' said Music Box sold over 24 million copies worldwide.

Sony Music China reported in 2001, that Music Box had sold 25 million copies worldwide.

Universal Music Korea reported in 2002, that Music Box has sold 25 million copies worldwide (1 million in Korea)

Last edited by seattleboy on Tue Oct 16, 2007 8:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.